Electrostatic gyros have been developed in which the gyroscopic element is suspended or captured by electrostatic forces. With such gyros a motor which provides for the gyro rotor spin up and spin down is required. Although any type motor may be used, such as a magnetic eddy current motor, it is thought that electrostatic motors may be preferable for this purpose. Various such motors have been developed, each of which suffer from at least some deficiencies. These deficiencies can best be pointed out by describing the requirements of an ideal electrostatic motor for such use. Such a motor should be non-ambiguous, i.e., it should provide positive starting torque for all rotor positions relative to the stator. In addition, it should be able to provide either clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation which can be simply selected. Furthermore, it should have both spin up and spin down capabilities which similarly, are easily selected. Furthermore, it should have the feature of going into a coast mode automatically when the desired rotor angular rate is achieved. It should also automatically enter a stop mode when the relative angular rate between the rotor and stator reaches zero. In addition, it should have an induced voltage on the rotor which is zero with the rotor arranged such that no conductive connections thereto are required. And finally, it should have zero displacement forces and moments applied thereto, except for the desired moment about the polar axis. Up to the present time, no electrostatic gyro motor has provided all of these features.